the audience applauded

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Good concept, poorly executed.

Don't listen to the negative reviews

Partially inspired documentary, centered around a blatantly charismatic and compassionate figure of Haiti's struggling social revolution, The Agronomist does not succeed so much as a film then it does to chronicle the fevered pitch of this passionate social disc jokey.Although there were times when I felt Jean Dominique was perhaps a bit too zealous, perhaps blotting out some of the crucial themes in his messages with constant over-enunciation and furious gesturing, it becomes clear that the infectious energy emanating from the man is genuine, and was reason enough to mount this low key study in political power.

In my search for a movie to review in my Latin American class, I came across "The Agronomist" at my local video store. Not knowing much about Latin America in general, I was not aware of what went on in Haiti - then, and even now. This was such a powerful film portraying Jean Dominique, the Haitian journalist who spoke out against successive dictatorships on Radio Haiti. I feel he resembles how Martin Luther King, in the way he spoke to become the "voice of the people" and his unending passion to pursue freedom, opportunity and human rights for the Haitian peasantry.I recall one part of the film that caught my attention. The foreign soldiers scene discussing "The Battle of Vertieres" that occurred on November 18, 1803. Composed of escaped Haitian slaves form the Haitian Revolutionary Army,demolish Napoleon's Colonial Forces. Here, Jean Dominique's father tells him when he's just a young boy seeing soldiers pass his house, "You are from this land, you are not French, you are not British, you are not American. You are Haitian!" I feel Dominique's passion to fight for human rights from the elite were rooted in him by his father.Dominique stood for the values of open inquiry, justice and freedom. The documentary provides the world with the insight of this fearless man who wanted to do good in the world. I hope someday his assassins are found and justice is served.

The Agronomist, a documentary film by Johnathon Demme, director of Silence of the Lambs and Philadelphia, was made over the course of a decade in Demme's free time about the Haitian radio journalist. When Dominique was killed, this movie became about a martyr story for the people. Demme does a decent job with the confusing tale, but his documentary style might border on boring if it weren't for the astounding presence of Dominique himself. He is a wildly eccentric man, and very funny to watch, especially with his large white teeth and folding face. But you know while you're watching him that he's also very serious. This is at the same time a political movie and the study of an endlessly interesting man. It is a movie that sides with the Democratic, but to call it a Liberal movie is unfair, since the Democratic interests in Haiti are on a much different scale than those of America. Their interests were freedom, every day life. To them, Clinton was a chance for freedom and democracy, and I respect that. There are wonderful sequences such as when they talk about his love of film and agriculture. He was "an agronomist without any land." This is a moving picture that offers a lot of insight into the Haitian culture, and lets us see it through the eyes of this wonderful little man.My grade: 8/10

"The Agronomist", Jean Dominique of Haiti's story, is somewhat interesting, but not that much. The slant that director Jonathan Demme put on Dominique's life is what a great man he was for his tireless efforts to save Haiti from dictatorship, lack of free speech, and general repression. As I watched the film, I began to wonder if this was possible. Dominique's broadcasts are good historical information, but we only see a small fraction of them, so it's hard to really tell how "revolutionary" his radio station was. I'm surprised that the government let Dominique keep the station after exiling him twice. I liked Jean Dominique, I think he had a fierce spirit, and wanted to see a democratic, quasi-socialistic Haiti, a Haiti something like Norway or Sweden. A few days after I saw the film, what I'm really left with is how miserably poor Haiti is (except for the few mega-rich that run things). I think this is more of a small screen film for PBS, vs. something for the big screen, if you haven't seen it, wait til the DVD.